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BPS Newsletter Cover Essay #13 (Summer-Fall 1989)
THE PROBLEM OF CONFLICT
by Bhikkhu Bodhi
It is one of the bitterest ironies of human life that although
virtually all human beings cherish a desire to live in peace, we
continually find ourselves embroiled in conflict, pitted against
others in relationships marred by tension, distrust or open
hostility. This irony is particularly poignant because it is
immediately evident to us that cordial, harmonious relations with
others are a necessary condition for our own genuine happiness. Not
only do such relations allow us to pursue undisturbed the goals we
consider essential to our personal fulfillment, but they bring us the
deeper joy of meaningful communion with our fellow human beings.
Contentious living, in contrast, is always intrinsically painful,
involving a hardening of our subjective armor, a tightening of the
knots of anger and hate. Indeed, whatever the outcome of conflict may
be -- whether victory or defeat -- the result itself is ultimately
detrimental for both victor and victim alike.
Nevertheless, although harmonious living promises such rich blessings
while discordant relations entail so much harm and misery, for the
most part our lives -- and the lives of those around us -- are
entangled in a raveled net of quarrels and disputes. Conflict may
simmer within as silent suspicion and resentment or it may explode
into violent rage and devastation. It may implicate us at the level
of personal relationships, or as members of an ethnic group, a
political party, a social class or a nation. But in one or another of
its many manifestations, the presence of conflict in our lives seems
inescapable. Peace and harmony hover in the distance as beautiful
dreams for a summer's night or noble ideals to which we pledge formal
allegiance. But when reality knocks and dreams are dispelled, we find
ourselves drawn, usually against our better judgment, into an arena
where the pleasures that we seek exact as their price the hard cash
of struggle and contention.
The teachings of the Buddha, while framed around the goal of
individual deliverance from suffering, are also expounded for the
purpose of instructing us in how we can live in harmony with others.
Such harmony is desirable not only as a source of satisfaction in
itself, but also because it is a prerequisite for treading the path
to the higher freedom. The final peace of enlightenment can arise
only in a mind that is at peace with others, and the mind can only be
at peace with others when we are actively committed to a course of
training that enables us to extricate the roots of conflict that lie
buried deep within our hearts.
Once, in ancient India, Sakka the ruler of the gods came to the
Buddha and asked: "By what bonds are people bound whereby, though
they wish to live in peace, without hate and hostility, they yet live
in conflict, with hate and hostility." The Master replied: "It is the
bonds of envy and avarice that so bind people that, though they wish
to live in peace, they live in conflict, with hate and hostility." If
we trace external conflicts back to their source, we will find that
they originate not in wealth, position or possessions, but in the
mind itself. They spring up because we envy others for the qualities
they possess which we desire for ourselves, and because we are driven
by an unquenchable avarice to extend the boundaries of what we can
label "mine."
Envy and avarice in turn are grounded in two more fundamental
psychological conditions. Envy arises because we identify things as
"I," because we perpetually seek to establish a personal identity for
ourselves internally and to project that identity outward for others
to recognize and accept. Avarice arises because we appropriate: we
attempt to carve out a territory for ourselves and to furnish that
territory with possessions that will titillate our greed and sense of
self-importance.
Conflict being thus rooted in envy and avarice, it follows that the
path to non-conflict must be a course of relinquishment, of removing
the constrictive thoughts and desires that pivot around the notions
of "I" and "mine," the drives to identify and to possess. This course
reaches consummation with the full maturity of wisdom, with insight
into the empty, egoless nature of all phenomena; for it is this
insight which exposes the hollowness of the notions of "I" and "mine"
that underlie envy and avarice. However, although the final
liberation from clinging may lie far away, the path leading to it is
a gradual one, growing out of simpler, more basic steps that lie very
close to our feet.
Two such necessary steps are changes in attitude with the power to
transmute envy and avarice. One is altruistic joy (//mudita//), the
ability to view the success of others with the same gladness we
experience at our own success. The other is generosity (//caga//),
the readiness to give and to relinquish. The former is the specific
antidote for envy, the latter the antidote for avarice. What is
common to both is a lifting of the sense of identity from its narrow
fixation on the self, and a broadening of it to encompass others who
share our desire to be happy and free from suffering.
As private individuals we cannot hope to resolve by our will the
larger patterns of conflict that engulf the societies and nations to
which we belong. We live in a world that thrives on conflict, and in
which the forces that nurture conflict are pervasive; obstinate and
terribly powerful. But as followers of the Enlightened One what we
can do and must do is to testify by our conduct to the supremacy of
peace: to avoid words and actions that engender animosity, to heal
divisions, to demonstrate the value of harmony and concord. The model
we must emulate is that provided by the Master in his description of
the true disciple: "He is one who unites the divided, who promotes
friendships, enjoys concord, rejoices in concord, delights in
concord, and who speaks words that promote concord."
* * * * * * * *